CF1R, CF2R, CF3R: who signs what, and when

One job, three certificates, three signers

California’s residential energy code produces three compliance certificates, and they are not versions of the same document. The CF1R is the Certificate of Compliance, the CF2R is the Certificate of Installation, and the CF3R is the Certificate of Verification — one per phase of the job, each signed by a different person.

The short answer: the designer signs the CF1R before the permit is issued, the installing contractor signs the CF2R during construction, and an independent field rater signs the CF3R after the work is in and tested. They happen in that order, and the paperwork enforces the order.

One structural detail is worth knowing up front. All three carry two signature lines. A documentation author signs to certify the paperwork is accurate and complete. A responsible person signs to accept legal responsibility for the work the certificate covers. What changes from form to form is who that responsible person is.

CF1R — Certificate of Compliance, signed at design

The CF1R is the design-phase certificate. It goes in with the permit application, and the agency must approve it by stamp or authorized signature before the permit issues — the step that stalls projects at plan check. Its responsible person is the building designer, who may prepare the energy analysis and certificate personally or delegate that to a documentation author whose signature, the compliance manual is explicit, certifies the documentation only — not the design features. That is the arrangement here: I am the documentation author, you stay the responsible designer.

Where registration is required, both sign electronically in an approved registry first, and only a registered copy showing the assigned registration number is accepted at plan check. For the form itself, see what is a CF1R; for the wider set, the Title 24 forms page.

CF2R — Certificate of Installation, signed by the installer

The CF2R belongs to construction, completed by the contractors who install the regulated features — windows, ducts and HVAC equipment, ventilation, envelope-tightness measures, lighting, insulation. Its declaration is that the installation conforms to all applicable codes and regulations and to the plans and specifications the enforcement agency approved. The responsible person is whoever is in charge of that installation and eligible under Division 3 of the Business and Professions Code for that scope; several trades each sign their own portion.

A builder or general contractor may sign for subcontractors they hire, but preparation and signature responsibility still reside with the specialty subcontractor who installed. The signed CF2R is posted at the job site for review at final inspection, and a copy goes to the homeowner. I do not prepare or sign CF2R forms.

CF3R — Certificate of Verification, signed by the rater

Where compliance requires field verification, a certified rater conducts the testing, then completes, signs and submits the CF3R as responsible person. On 2025-code permits — applications submitted on or after January 1, 2026 — that is an ECC-Rater under the Energy Code Compliance program. On 2019 and 2022-cycle permits the same section reads identically with HERS Rater and HERS field verification instead — the certificate did not change, the program was renamed. See HERS and ECC field verification and the 2025 code changes.

The rater is a third party, independent from the builder or general contractor, and under the 2025 code that independence sits in the administrative code rather than in custom. ECC-Providers, ECC-Raters and ECC-Rater companies may not hold a financial interest in the builder, designer or subcontractor signing as responsible person — with one declared exception, for a rater company that files a separation-of-services declaration with its provider. The roles do not collapse into each other either. An ECC-Rater is not eligible to sign the CF1R as responsible designer. A rater company may be named document author on a CF1R or a CF2R, but it cannot sign either one as responsible person, and it can sign a CF2R only as an authorized representative under a written delegation of signature authority that is also on file with the provider — the installer stays legally responsible either way.

A CF3R records a result, not just a signature: each test is reported to the registry as pass or fail. On a pass the registry issues a registered copy. On a fail the failure goes into the registry even if the installer corrects it immediately, and the work is retested.

The sequence, and why it cannot be shuffled

The CF1R is where a project learns which measures need field verification later, and arranging a rater is then the builder’s job. When installation is finished, the responsible person completes the CF2Rs. Only after the CF1R and required CF2Rs are registered does the rater verify: no CF3R may be signed for a house lacking a registered CF2R signed by the installer, the one exception being sample-group homes. All three go through the same registry, and no certificate of occupancy issues until the agency has all of them.

Not every project produces all three

A CF3R exists only where compliance requires field verification, and that requirement is also what drives registration for the whole set — which the compliance manual frames as all newly constructed homes, most additions, and many alterations. Projects with no field-verified measures run a non-registered prescriptive path instead: dedicated CF1R and CF2R forms exist for those additions and alterations, with no CF3R at all. There is one documented exception to CF1R-before-permit — to simplify the permit process for HVAC changeouts, Section 10-103 allows the registered CF1R-ALT-02-E to be submitted at final inspection rather than before the permit is obtained.

Where verification applies, the forms pair one to one. Duct leakage is a CF2R-MCH-20-H from the installer and a CF3R-MCH-20-H from the rater; refrigerant charge is CF2R-MCH-25-H and CF3R-MCH-25-H. Space-conditioning airflow rate and fan efficacy, quality insulation installation, whole-building air leakage and mechanical-ventilation verification generally come up as well — examples, not a complete list.

These three letters are the single-family set

The CF1R family covers single-family dwellings of any number of stories, including accessory dwelling units and townhouses, plus duplexes. Three-or-more-unit low-rise multifamily uses LMCC, LMCI and LMCV. Nonresidential, hotel/motel and high-rise multifamily work uses NRCC for compliance, NRCI for installation and NRCV for verification, plus the NRCA acceptance certificates — the forms on a tenant improvement. The Title 24 glossary collects the rest.

Where I fit in the three

I build the energy model and prepare the CF1R as documentation author, then register it through CHEERS, a CEC-approved ECC-Provider. You sign as responsible designer. The CF2R is the installer’s and the CF3R is the rater’s — I prepare neither, and that is the right division of the work. What I do is flag, off the CF1R, which measures need field verification, so the rater is no surprise at final inspection.

Prices

Flat fees, in writing before I start. No hourly, no bid package, no change-order games — the number on the quote is the number on the invoice.

One honest note

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